New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has reached his record high in popularity and job performance according to a poll from Quinnipiac University released on Jan. 23, 2013, and Garden State residents feel he was right to criticize Congressional Republican’s for delaying the aid package from Hurricane Sandy with a margin of 79 to 15 percent.
On job performance voters approve Christie 74 to 21 percent, which is the highest score of any governor in the states surveyed by the independent Quinnipiac University. The only other Governor to match that number is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
When it comes to his re-election, voters say that Christie deserves another term by a margin of 68 to 24 percent; even democrats approve with a margin of 47 to 43 percent. Not an easy thing to do in a blue state that favors democrats on a normal basis. Christie easily defeats any democratic challengers in a head to head matchup. Even though State Senator Barbara Buono has been the only one to announce her candidacy at this time, other democratic possibilities were also polled. Christie beats those candidates by the following percentage points:
- 59 - 30 percent over State Senator Richard Codey
- 63 - 22 percent over State Senator Barbara Buono
- 61 - 25 percent over State Senate President Stephen Sweeney
In these hypothetical matchups, Christie takes 30 to 35 percent of the Democratic vote.
We are three months post Hurricane Sandy now, far beyond what would be considered the ‘bounce period” that most pollsters and pundits would attribute to those high numbers. Christie still has his work cut out for him, rebuilding after Sandy will prove to be a challenging time with new building codes and tough choices, Christie will be challenged on issues like gun control, same sex marriage and unemployment, areas that democrats see as being vulnerable issues for Christie.
No matter who does end up being the democratic challenger they have a tough hill to climb, in the eyes of voters Christie is made of Teflon and it does not appear to be chipping away any time soon.
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